I packed all my camping stuff on Sunday and headed over to my friend Price's house. He and I were taking some teenage boys from our church youth group to the Grand Canyon. We all met at his house Sunday night, packed our stuff and left his house at 2:30 AM Monday morning. There were seven of us in all.
The trip out there was great. I was running the bus at about 70 MPH. We stopped for diesel in Kingman, AZ. I was amazed when the pump kicked off at 36 gallons! I pulled around to the gasoline aisle and pumped $4 worth of gasoline into the generator tank.
We entered Grand Canyon National Park around 1:00 PM. The rangers were nice enough to move us to a campsite that could accommidate a 35' bus. After a shower and dinner, I was ready for bed.
First thing Tuesday morning, we showered, had breakfast and packed our equipment. We stopped at a couple of the overlooks on the way out of the park. As always, the scenery was breathtaking. Here's a picture of my bus next to one of the over looks.
We left the Grand Canyon through the east enterance, and headed for the Painted Desert. The bus was still running great. We stopped a couple times for pictures and I noticed that the generator sounded like the muffler had come loose. Oh well, I figured that I would fix it later. It was too hot and the scenery was too beautiful to crawl under the bus then. Check out the desert.
We moved some food and drinks from the baggage bays to the inside and hit the road again. With a sandwich in hand, we headed for Alternate Highway 89. This was exactly why I wanted to own a bus conversion. I was on top of the world.
Alternate 89 turned west and headed up into the mountains near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. No problem. I had an 8v71 behind me. I shifted between 2nd and 3rd and the old bus just kept going up. I was watching my water temp gauge the whole way. I wasn't too alarmed to see it hit 220 degrees. It often does that on hills. It started to hit 240 and I was beginning to think about pulling over. I looked at it again, and it was up to 280. Now, I can't really explain what happened to my brain, but I imagine it was the same thing that caused Icarus to fly too close to the sun with his wings of wax and feathers.
I was thinking that we were close to the crest, and if I stopped now it would probably take an hour to cool the engine down. As stupid as it sounds, I decided to crest the mount and let it cool off as we traveled downhill. What was I thinking? About fifty yards from the crest, I shifted into 2nd one last time, and the engine died. One last check of the water temp gauge revealed that the needle was pegged at 290.
After about 45 minutes, it cooled down and we added lots of water. I can't tell you how happy I was when it started again. The engine seemed to be running a little rough, but the temp was 220. It didn't take much effort to get it out of the mountains. The temp stayed between 220 and 240 the whole way. Once out of the mountains we headed for Fredonia, AZ. Back in the desert and on flat ground, the temp qickly climbed to 260.
We pulled over in gas station in Fredonia, AZ. to let it cool down. The woman working at the station was nice enough to take all seven of us to the city pool in her Surburban. When we got back the temp was around 160. My engine had alway started on the first roll. This time it took a few more rolls of the crank to get it going. The woman at the gas station told me that there were some diesel mechanics in the next town, so off we went across the Arizona/Utah border to Kanab, UT.
Kanab is only seven miles from Fredonia. The temp climbed quickly to 260 and there wasn't much power left in the engine. It was obvious that I wasn't going to be able to drive it home. We limped into Kanab and found a campground for the night. I called my mechanic back home, and he said I'd be in real trouble if it didn't start in the morning. I parked it close to where we were staying, we had dinner and went to bed. Sure enough it wouldn't start the next morning.
Price and I spent the better part of Wednesday morning trying to figure out what we were going to do about the bus. Finally we came to the only real option. I made arangements to have the bus towed to a mechanic. The tow company owner hooked it up and towed it around the corner to his shop. He pulled the axles and called just about every diesel mechanic in a 200 mile radius. The only shop that would work on my bus, was Southwest Diesel Service in St. George. The tow company owner rented me his 1998 Suburban for $40, so we could follow his driver to St. George. Here's a picture of the bus on the tow truck.
So off we went. Everyone comfortable packed into the Suburban. A little more than half way between Kanab and St. George, smoke began to come from under the bus. The tow truck driver stopped and checked it out. Whew, it was just the mud flap. He cut it off and we continued our trip. It wasn't a mile later when rubber started flying out from under the bus. Another roadside check revealed that my bus was throwing the inside left rear tire. There was a Texaco station about another mile down the road so we headed for that. The driver called the shop, and had a service truck dispatched. I got dizzy as the dollar signs passed before my eyes. This is a shot of the bus waiting for the guy to come change the tire.
Now as you GMC guys know, the spare tire is located behind the front bumper. The tow truck driver really had to work at it to get the winch under my bus, and the driver didn't want to put it down. I suggested that he take the tire of the front and put it on the rear. It took some real finess to get the 11.00R20 tires off without breaking the fiberglass fenders. After about three hours we were back on the road again. It was about 45 more minutes to St. George.
The driver dropped the bus in the yard at Southwest Diesel Service. The front end was up on blocks and the axle shafts were on the ground next to the bus. Southwest Diesel was crawling with trucks. These guys are off the I-15, and I'm betting they make a killing doing quick jobs. It was obvious that my bus was going to be there for awhile.
We rented a van and spent the night at a Motel 6 in St. George. We added two more days to the trip and continued on to Zion National Park. Zion is magnificant, but it was a little hard to have fun knowing that I had cooked my motor. We returned to St. George on Saturday afternoon. Someone from the church came out in one of the church's vans Saturday night/Sunday morning on what was to become known as the "rescue mission".
I'm betting that I will never forget this trip, even if I didn't have this web site.
Take care, and watch those temperature gauges!!!